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Polygamy - inside the harem

Shagufta in Kashmir, Pakistan

Shagufta Yaqub, a young educated British Muslim, got married in 2002. In her marriage contract she did not prohibit her husband from taking another wife.

To discover more about both the example of the Qur'an and current practice, Shagufta met people in polygamous relationships both in the UK and in her birthplace of Pakistan. She talked to scholars, lawyers and women's organisations.

This is her personal journey - will her belief, that polygamy is a divinely ordained right of the man, be challenged?

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Contributors

Shagufta at a mosque in Lahore, Pakistan

A leading Muslim scholar at Cambridge University claims that men are biologically designed to desire a multiplicity of women and that polygamy should be legalised in the UK.

A primary schoolteacher in Birmingham talks about his life with two wives and six children - all living in the same house.

A man and his second wife in Pakistan tell of their daily fear of being killed by assassins at the behest of their families.

A Muslim convert says that being a second wife provides her with the best of both worlds - she wants to pursue her career and does not want a full-time husband.

And Shagufta hears some astonishing claims as to how some second wives are brought into Britain.

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